Injection molder adds 160 East Tennessee jobs
Parkway Products LLC announced Wednesday it will invest $5.7 million to expand its operations in Greeneville, Tennessee, adding 160 new jobs at its injection molding facility over the next five years.
The addition will allow the company to add several more production lines and assist in the purchase and installation of new assets, tooling costs and space.
“We are excited to invest in Greene County, Tennessee, because of the strong growth we have seen in our loyal customer base of equipment manufacturers, the productivity and commitment of a terrific team of Parkway associates in Greeneville, and the support of local government that respects the contributions made by Parkway and the industrial supply chain to the local economy,” Andrew Green, CEO of Parkway Products, said in a statement Wednesday.
Parkway, founded in 1946, has 10 facilities in the United States and Mexico.
“Tennessee’s advanced manufacturing job creation far exceeds national growth with employment concentration more than 30% higher than the national average,” Gov. Bill Lee said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to seeing how the residents of Greene County will benefit from this new investment.”
Battery recycling plant planned near Atlanta
A company that aims to recycle lithium ion batteries from vehicles and other uses will build its first large plant in suburban Atlanta, investing $43 million and hiring 150 people.
Battery Resourcers, based in Worcester, Massachusetts, made the announcement Wednesday, saying it would take over a building in Covington and ramp up to full operation by August.
The company is betting the battery supply chain, now concentrated in Asia, is about to spread out to other regions and that its recycling process will be cleaner and cheaper than mining new materials.
“Automotive manufacturers are sitting on mountains of discarded batteries and scrap, and right now they have very few options for responsible and cost-effective disposal,” Battery Resourcers CEO Michael O’Kronley said in a statement.
Battery Resourcers will take apart, discharge and shred batteries and then process the shredded material, producing metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese, as well as graphite and other engineered ingredients for new batteries. The company uses methods it says can recover more than 97% of metals with zero toxic waste, producing material that outperforms newly mined ingredients.
The Covington plant will have a capacity to recycle 30,000 metric tons (33,000 tons) of batteries each year, equal to 70,000 vehicle batteries.
It’s the latest link in an electric vehicle supply-chain Georgia officials are trying to create. SK Innovation is building a $2.6 billion, 2,600-worker battery plant in Commerce, northeast of Atlanta. And last month, electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive announced it would build a $5 billion battery and assembly plant just east of Covington that’s projected to employ 7,500 workers.
Battery Resourcers chose the Georgia site because it’s close to electric vehicle and battery makers and has a good workforce, said Roger Lin, the company’s vice president of marketing & government affairs.
HBO Max subscribers hit nearly 74 million
Streaming service HBO Max and cable channel HBO ended 2021 with a combined 73.8 million global subscribers, beating year-end projections of 73 million, the platform’s parent company, AT&T, said Wednesday.
The streaming service also expanded into 46 countries in the past year.
The announcement represents a vindication of the strategy of Jason Kilar, chief executive of WarnerMedia, the entertainment conglomerate that oversees HBO Max and HBO. In December 2020, Kilar announced that all 17 films on the Warner Bros. 2021 slate would debut simultaneously in theaters and on the streaming service.
“It worked, and it worked well,” Kilar said in a phone interview Wednesday. “We’d make the same decision again, if we had a chance to go back and do it again.”
The growth was also fueled by several popular shows, including “The Sex Lives of College Girls” and “Succession.”
The streaming world is fiercely competitive, and HBO Max still has significantly fewer subscribers than Disney+, which had 118.1 million in November, and Netflix, which has 222 million.
Disney+ premiered in November 2019. HBO Max made its debut in May 2020.
Judge denies bail for accused hacker
A Russian millionaire who U.S. authorities allege participated in a scheme to steal information on computer networks and use it to trade shares of companies, bringing in tens of millions of dollars illegally, was denied bail Wednesday.
Vladislav Klyushin, 41, who works for an information technology company with ties to the Russian government, is one of five Russian nationals who played a role in the scheme that netted $82 million from 2018 through 2020, federal authorities said. The others remain at large.
Klyushin’s attorney argued for release with conditions, including $2.5 million bond, with home detention in a one-bedroom unit in Boston’s Seaport District, and electronic monitoring.
Prosecutors argued in court papers that given his wealth, the seriousness of the charges and the potential of decades in prison, Klyushin is a high risk to flee.
U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler in Boston agreed, saying as a sophisticated businessman and international traveler, Klyushin “presents a substantial risk of flight.”
Klyushin, who appeared at Wednesday’s hearing via video, pleaded not guilty to conspiring to obtain unauthorized access to computers, and to commit wire fraud and securities fraud; aiding and abetting wire fraud; aiding and abetting unauthorized access to computers; and aiding and abetting securities fraud.
– Compiled by Dave Flessner